Dying malls across the US are being transformed into churches

As the retail apocalypse sweeps the US, hundreds of malls are being deserted. But a blessed few are being transformed into something entirely different.

Empty and out-of-use malls are being revamped as fitness centres, offices, public libraries, movie theatres, medical clinics, and even churches.

“Only so many consumers are going to malls, and they will flock to newer ones,” June Williamson, a City College of New York architecture professor and the author of “Retrofitting Suburbia,” told Business Insider. “If developers build a new mall, they are inevitably undercutting another property. So older properties have to get re-positioned every decade, or they will die.”

Worshipping at a mall might sound strange but it’s a reality that thousands of people across the US are living.

Here’s what it’s like to go to a church that is inside a former mall.

In 2000, the deserted Grand Village Mall in Grandville, Michigan was donated to Mars Hill congregation. The church revamped a huge anchor store, turning it into a huge, open chapel, nicknamed 'The Hanger' because it was big enough to fit an aeroplane.

It doesn't look like a traditional church, but it can fit hundreds of worshippers.

The Lakeland, Florida 'Church at the Mall' has retail in its name.

The church has two locations, offering traditional and progressive services, and streams all of its sermons online.

The First Baptist Church purchased the 400,000-square-foot Lakeland Mall for $A7.36 million in the late 1990s, and spent more than $2.63 million on renovations transforming it into the 'Church at the Mall.'

Unfortunately, the mall's days as a gathering place seem to be numbered.

Seefried Industrial Properties, a developer that has created distribution centres for Amazon, is considering buying and bulldozing the site, according to Cleveland.com.

But, the phenomenon of churches opening up in malls seems far from over. As thousands of stores close across the country, retail centres are going to need to be repurposed -- and churches with huge congregations could be the perfect fit.